Rhema Media Increases Efficiency in Donation Management With Dynamics 365
Meaningful Outcomes
Immediate donor acknowledgement with email integration in Dynamics 365
Text receipts for donations sent automatically instead of manually
2-3 days reduced workload in reporting with Power BI
Objective
Build a comprehensive and integrated solution that will enhance Rhema Media operational efficiency in donor and member management.
Challenge
Rhema Media is a non-profit Christian media organisation in New Zealand. They are committed to providing high-quality content that is both informative and inspiring.
Rhema Media was facing several challenges with its existing CRM system. As a listener and viewer supported ministry with 87% of it’s funding from donations, there was a significant workload involved in the associated donation processing and supporter communications processes.
The lack of an efficient donor management system necessitated a manual process to encode daily bank deposits into the database. In addition, donor acknowledgement was also a manual process with thank you letters generated in batches. Any email supporter communications required them to export data into spreadsheets and mail merge, which was both time consuming and prone to human error.
Chris Price, the Head of Marketing and Development, had been looking for an intuitive system to enable closer relationships with their donors by holding more relevant information. The system needed to include communication management so they can engage with their donors.
Solution
Rhema Media partnered with Magnetism to transform their processes through Microsoft Dynamics 365. Their appeal management application (iTrack) was integrated with CRM allowing them to update or create a record automatically. Email communications have also been integrated in the system allowing them to send donor acknowledgement and tax receipts automatically.
Power BI has also been set up along with their Dynamics 365 to help them become more data oriented than spreadsheet oriented in terms of structuring data outputs and reports. They are now able to have a great birds eye view of key metrics for success and allow trends to be identified.
Payment processing has also been automated with workflows and automations increasing efficiency and accuracy, allowing the team more time for proactive supporter interactions.
Rhema Media is now fully equipped with continuous support from Magnetism, from when the system went into testing and the implementation phase. Design documents were also provided for a smoother orientation and turnover of the system to the team.
“We felt well supported in terms of taking our initial scope and turning it to design documents and the subsequent implementation of that has been good. There was a good level of support during implementation and testing. ”
Results
The implementation of Dynamics 365 for Rhema Media has been overwhelmingly positive both enhancing productivity of the existing team in helping New Zealanders have an increasingly meaningful, personal relationship with Jesus Christ through media. Creating closer connections is core to the Rhema Media culture and the system reflected that. Creating or updating a record (contact), following appeal activity is now done automatically from donations, instead of weeks of encoding manually. The integration of email communications is also a big win for Rhema Media as it means more customised messages can be sent providing a more personalised experience, as well as timely donor acknowledgements and sending of tax receipts. This feature has been incredibly helpful for them especially during the challenge of COVID and the lockdown period.
The time it has taken to create meaningful reports has also been reduced by 2-3 days with the help of Power BI. With processes being streamlined now, they have saved days that can now be spent on more important matters. Donation automation, integrated email communications, and automated donor acknowledgement has given them massive leap forward in terms of efficiency and capability.
